You're in a completely different climate and zone than me, but I divided a clump of Meadowbrite this past spring. I think it was about 4 years old and getting large. From past experience very early spring division just works better for me with some plants. When I dug the clump, the leaves were just barely starting to poke through the ground. It just naturally seemed to fall apart into about 9 divisions. A couple of 'em were quite tiny, but they all survived and almost all are blooming nicely now. I'm sure next year, they will be spectacular. Kevin

ken, yes, the idea was to get larger hostas sooner, than with starters or 2-3 years old ones...The future hosta bed is an empty space now, and I thought it will be nice to have some larger plants almost right away, and if I need to add one, or two, or three, I can afford to buy smaller plants, but hosta bed will look pretty decent... -------------------------------------------------- I also bought 15 ferns from Hallson and 3 Blue Mammoth divisions from Venero, they are on their way... I bought 50 lbs of Vermicompost (spl?) to mix with the soil in hosta holes only (and handful of bone meal for each hole), and the topsoil that is currently there will be mixed with 10" of compost. And I will remove as much subsoil as I can for total of about 16" bed depth...I cannot build lasagna, the area where I plan to plant hosta is right by the chain link fence, that I share with my neighbors, so I can't go up too much, besides there is my own sidewalk and a shrub, that I do not want to remove or replant (it has attitude and grows very slowly). So, I decided to go with sort of double dig method and removing subsoil... I also bought 20 Kg of Coconut coir to hold lacking moister and to fluff the soil, and if I get lucky I plan to get 1 or 2 contractor bags of alfalfa pellets to mix with soil. Someone also told me to bury one or two large fish heads 7"-10" below the roots for better growth, but person grows roses, will it work for hosta, too? So, how does it sound? Am I all set, or I need to buy something else?

Alright, I couldn't put it off any longer so I reread the thread, looked at the grasses, and faced certain aspects of reality, such as I have to do the work myself or pay someone else to do it. I thought hard about pounding rebar into my rocky soil, and I looked at the two big, heavy, old sledgehammers in the tool shed, and I quickly lowered my standards. Maybe metal fence posts with the U-shaped channel would pound into the ground easier, slipping in between the rocks. And a discussion with a few guys at Home Depot introduced me to a mini-sledgehammer that's more my size. So I ended up with a 28 inch vinyl-coated woven wire fence, attached to 3 ft fence posts pounded 1 foot into the ground so 2 feet remains above-ground. I placed the posts outside the grass clump to give them room to grow and also to let them spread out a bit at the top. It's all green, so in the winter I may have to do some camouflage such as nandina suggests. At least they sort of match the peony supports near them. Tools Grass Fence #1 Grass Fence #2 The wire fence fits nicely into the notches in the fence post and the flange footing should help keep it upright. I don't know if this is tall enough, but I plan to attach the 4 ft Y-stakes to the posts later in the season. I could fairly easily replace the 3 ft posts with 4 ft posts and just raise the fence. ex I used the loose ends of the fence to fasten the overlap. I also used some short black cable ties as fasteners. The operation was easier than I expected so it won't be so hard to talk myself into modifying the supports if I have to. I did manage to stomp on a few plants in the process, and working with curious, very thorny roses looking over your shoulder can be challenging. It's not very elegant and the green posts sort of annoy me, but it's a start. Now I have to wait and see if it works. Claire

I do the receptions and funeral lunches for our church. No one I know of would even consider instant coffee. We have a Bunn system that puts out hot coffee about as fast as you can pour water into it and put coffee in the filter. How many are you expecting? Can you borrow a big thermos cooler thing? It will keep coffee hot for a long time, and if you can make coffee in an ordinary drip pot and pour it in that it should work. Or perhaps you can borrow pump pots from other members of the congregation, then buy the coffee at some place, there are any number of places that will sell coffee by the quart of gallon, then pour it into a thermos and serve from there....or borrow coffee serving pots. Do you have a micro wave and a stove in the kitchen? You could even make "boiled coffee" using grounds and egg white and then pouring through a strainer. Our church is an old church and we have lots and lots of heavy dishes and cups and saucers. When I took over as chair of the receptions committee, we started using the real dishes and flatware again. We saved huge $$ on every event, and the fellowship of washing dishes and talking together is a good thing. But please don't use instant....and please please don't put a spoonful of coffee powder in the bottom of a cup and add hot water. Oh....and skip soda...get frozen lemondad mix, or buy apple juice, and make pitchers of iced tea.... Good luck with this! Linda C